Complaint filed against SIS over COVID-19 forced cremations

Activist Chirantha Amerasinghe filed a complaint against the State Intelligence Service (SIS) over the controversial forced cremations of COVID-19 dead. Amerasinghe and several others filed the complaint at the Sri Lanka Police Headquarters on Saturday. 

Speaking to the media, Amerasinghe said the mandatory cremation policy was imposed to target the Muslim community in an attempt to oppress them.

He noted that while the Easter Sunday attack mastermind Zahran Hashim at one point could not find followers for his cause, the various attacks against the Muslim community helped him recruit over 35 members at the time. 

Amerasinghe claimed that the SIS had informed the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) that COVID-19 could spread through water contamination. Based on this SIS information, he said he was detained by the police in 2020 after he posted on social media that there was no evidence of negative impacts from burying COVID-19 victims.

Amerasinghe accused the SIS of driving citizens, particularly the Muslim community, towards extremism through such actions.